


the moon and stars seem awful cold and bright

by fiveyaaas



Series: comfort and joy [2]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Gift Giving, Grief/Mourning, Implied Sexual Content, Married Life, Sexual Humor, title from “thank god it’s christmas” by queen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:20:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27899737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiveyaaas/pseuds/fiveyaaas
Summary: It wasn’t that she assumed that since Luther and Five were related that he would just innately know; she just desperately hoped that was the case.
Relationships: Allison Hargreeves/Luther Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy/Vanya Hargreeves
Series: comfort and joy [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2036935
Comments: 7
Kudos: 39
Collections: Harcest Ficmas 2020





	the moon and stars seem awful cold and bright

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rappaccini](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rappaccini/gifts).



When Five admitted to Allison that he and Luther were fraternal twins, she at first did not believe him. Primarily because Five was hammered when he said it, but also because they were just completely  _ opposite _ in personality. Where Luther was sweet to everyone, Five was… well, Five to everyone. Physically, they didn’t match in any way at all, either. Well, she supposed that, in his body that was suspiciously exactly thirteen years older than all of theirs, a body that had actually been able to grow properly, Five  _ was  _ pretty tall but that’s where the similarities he had to Luther stopped. 

So, Allison primarily went to Five with her problem out of  _ desperation.  _ It wasn’t that she assumed that since Luther and Five were related that he would just innately know; she just desperately _hoped_ that was the case. 

“I need your help,” she blurted, hands wringing together.

He flicked his gaze over her shrewdly, “Vanya would have to agree, but sure.” 

“Oh my god,  _ no.  _ Gross.” 

“What’s gross about that?” He crossed his ankles, sipping the decaf coffee Vanya had started forcing him to drink before bed because he stayed up the entire night if he didn’t. “Don’t you have that thing with Luther?” That thing, of course, being marriage, which she assumed Five actually took very high stock of, considering any opportunity he had to loudly announce to the world that he loved his wife, he took it easily. 

“Well, yeah, but Luther’s not  _ you.” _

“Alright, fair enough. What’s your problem, kiddo?” He patted the couch, encouraging her to sit down, and she did, scowling at him.

“You really have to rub it in our face that you’re older than us every time, huh?” 

He beamed, “Of course I do.”

She sighed, leaning back, “My problem is about Luther.” 

His face grew (a little more) serious. “Is he okay? Are you both okay, actually?”

“Yeah, we’re fine. It’s not anything serious. I just wanted your advice on something.”

“Alright, go ahead.” He glanced up when Vanya came into the room, smiling at her. She’d been working on another book (not a memoir this time), and she blearily walked over to Five. One side of her face was red and the hair beside it was fluffed up, indicating she’d fallen asleep at some point during her task. When she immediately collapsed on Five’s lap, he didn’t even really react, except to keep her steady while she slept. It was so  _ odd,  _ seeing him like that. 

And just like that, she realized that maybe he actually  _ was  _ a little like Luther. 

Encouraged by that knowledge, she asked him, without skirting around, “I don’t know what to get Luther for Christmas.”

“Do we… celebrate Christmas?”

“I booked Luther and I a bed and breakfast in Vermont earlier this year,” Allison explained. “I didn’t want to be alone or… with a lot of people this year.”

Five’s eyes filled with understanding. He’d been the only one who truly  _ understood  _ the matter of Claire, considering time paradoxes were his specialty. While Luther, Klaus, Ben, Vanya, and even Diego had all helped her in the previous few years that she’d lived without a daughter that existed, they could never truly understand the feeling. The holidays were the hardest time for her, and she’d just needed to get away. “I hope spending time with Luther helps,” Five told her gently. “So your issue is that you need help finding a gift?” 

“Yes. Like, what’s something you would like Vanya to give you?”

And thus began the longest three hours of Allison’s life when Five explicitly explained the most bizarre, specific, and disturbing sex acts she had ever heard in her entire life.

So, needless to say, Five was a dead end. And he had exactly  _ two  _ similarities to Luther. _Total._

* * *

When Luther came to her room that night, the bed having long since been replaced to a king size so the both of them had ample room in his new body, she smiled up at him, cuddling to his side as soon as he settled beside her. 

“How was work today?” Allison yawned, kissing his cheek before resting her head on his chest. Luther had started teaching middle school science after getting a degree pretty quickly, having ample amounts of time and money to spend. Sometimes she would go to his school with some lunch, just wanting to see the adorable way the kids asked him questions or the goofy smile on his face as he talked about space to them. Even though they were middle schoolers and, by the nature of being fourteen, hated everything, they actually  _ enjoyed  _ him as a teacher and it warmed her heart. 

“It was good! I have this kid in there,  _ total  _ know-it-all, and I’m pretty sure his ego would rival Five’s. However, once I realized how much like Five he was last week, I had an idea.”

“What was that?”

“Wel, I figured, what’s one thing that has always made Five semi-bearable? So, I changed the seating arrangements and put the sweetest, shyest girl in the classroom right next to him. I actually was able to accomplish two things this way too because she has  _ awful  _ test anxiety, and it has caused her grade to slip despite being one of the smartest ones in there. Anyways, it has been  _ one week,  _ and he sabotaged his test earlier so that the curve that he always sets would do her favors.”

Allison laughed, “You got him a Vanya? That’s adorable. Although using teenagers’ hormones against them might come back to bite you in the ass.”

“I’m very satisfied with the results, honestly. If Reginald had used our hormones against us, everyone else might have all stayed much longer, truly.” 

“Yeah, well, he was an idiot.”

“Absolutely.” He said it with no hesitation, even if it was just a miniscule slight against Reginald, and it made Allison smile more widely. “I do honestly hope that this helps both of those kids. The know-it-all seemed like he really needed a friend, and I’m really happy that I was capable of getting him one.” 

“You’d be a great father,” Allison blurted, not thinking at all. 

Luther didn’t even flinch at the comment, though. “If you’re ever ready for it, I’d love to be.” 

God, he was so  _ sweet.  _ So  _ considerate.  _ It was impossible not to love him. She crawled more fully on top of him, leaning down to press her lips to his, promising, “I’ll tell you when I am.” 

“How was your day?” Luther asked when she pulled away. 

“Oh, God, I had to deal with the  _ actual  _ Five’s hormones. It was awful.”

“He’s an old man. Mentally  _ and  _ physically, now. Why are his hormones an issue now?”

“I was asking him something about Vanya-“

“See, that’s your first mistake. Depending on how you phrase it, Five would rant to you for hours about sweet things about Vanya too, but, if you say something that can be taken even semi-sexually, you will absolutely suffer for it.” 

She raised her brows, “So, he’s done it to you too, then?” 

“Yes, absolutely. We’ve all been a victim to Five’s vivid description skills at one point in our lives.”

“I can’t decide if I’m happy for Vanya that she has someone who is so devoted to her or disgusted by Five at how devoted he is to her.”

“I lean towards cautiously optimistic in these situations.”

She laughed. “I did get an idea, though, earlier. From something he said.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes! Question, do you happen to have any latex allergies?”

* * *

Allison still had the original conundrum. Asking Klaus would likely yield the same results as asking Five. Diego was out of the question by default. Ben was notoriously awful at giving gifts, and it was common knowledge among them all. Every year, they pretended that they would read the obscure, maudlin pieces of fiction he got them, and then he’d ask questions about how they reacted to certain scenes and they’d remember they had to wikipedia the books. 

Vanya, though… She wasn’t precisely close to Luther at all. At this point, they were still in the overly polite phase, an awkward charge to the air when they stayed together too long a time. When Five had told her he was twins with Luther, she tried a little harder, but Allison knew it was hard for her to trust him. 

However, they were pretty similar, personality wise. Plus, they both  _ adored  _ music. Luther had a much more varied taste than her, but she knew plenty about non-classical music as well. They both were sweet but on the shy side, and Allison could begrudgingly admit that of all her family, she was most akin to Five as far as her personality went. Maybe this could also potentially help strengthen Luther and Vanya’s relationship. 

When she knocked on Five’s bedroom door, something his lack of boundaries were probably flummoxed by, Vanya poked her head out. Even though she slept in Five’s bed every night and spent most of her time with her husband, she had a room on the other side of the house that she’d claimed, insisting that she deserved her own place with a pointed look at Klaus, who’d torn down the very small room she’d been allotted years ago. 

“Hey, Allison,” she commented sleepily. “What’s up?” 

“Can I come in?”

“Yeah, but we’ll have to be quiet. Five’s asleep for the first time in days, and I fear if we wake him, he’ll struggle to fall asleep again.”

“Absolutely!”

Five’s room had a small desk that Allison grabbed the chair from, pulling it close to where Vanya settled against the bed, stroking Five’s hair while he slept. “What’s wrong, Allison?”

“I’ve been struggling to get Luther a gift-“

“Already told you,” Five muttered, sounding only half-awake. 

“Go to sleep,” Vanya commanded, and he pouted for maybe three seconds before his face relaxed and he buried his face against her thigh. When she was satisfied that he’d fallen asleep, she questioned, “Why are you asking me?”

“You and Luther are pretty similar,” Allison pointed out. “And you both love music, so I thought. I dunno, what’s a gift you’d want from Five?”

She was half-worried that Vanya would do the same thing as Five, who Allison was 90% certain was eavesdropping at this point. “Well, we do have similar taste as far as his favorite classical pieces,” Vanya sounded uncharacteristically excited, and Allison felt a stab of guilt for not giving her cause to be excited like this more often. She started rambling about vinyls that would have recorded Bernstein performances, saying that he was the favorite conductor of both of them. Then, she started talking about all the various composers they both enjoyed, her smile turning brighter as the nervousness of talking so long drifted away. 

“Thank you, Vanya,” Allison told her sincerely when she was done. “I appreciate you.” 

“This was nice,” she said, blushing. “Could we try to talk more often? Of course, you can participate more and just-“

“Vanya, relax,” Allison kissed her forehead quickly. “I’d love to spend more time with you.”

She blushed, and Allison realized how adorable she was, easily understanding why someone like Five (who, again, she could begrudgingly accept similarities with) would  _ melt  _ for someone like her. “Thank you, Allison.”

“Of course, V. Talk later, okay? You should get some sleep because I’m pretty sure Five will threaten my life if you’re even slightly tired in the morning.”

“Okay,” she giggled. She waved shyly, and Allison smiled again, inspired for plenty of gifts.

* * *

She started by finding a nice walkman and then bulk amounts of random tapes that people who were trying to get rid of their collections sold online. When she got a bunch of records, she wondered briefly if it was all excessive, but she didn’t think that it was. Especially considering that this was their first Christmas as a married couple, and that they had the inheritance of a billionaire (most of which, they spent donating to a variety of charities they enjoyed, not seeing any point in being billionaires when they already had plenty with their powers (and because nobody could possibly need that much money.)) 

Figuring out how exactly to make a mixtape actually was something she could ask Five’s advice on and not worry about, apparently. She asked, jokingly, if he’d made mixtapes in the Commission before he’d  _ blushed  _ and said, ‘I made three of them for Vanya when I was a kid. She didn’t ever get birthday presents, so from eleven to thirteen, I made her one.’ It would have almost been endearing if he hadn’t immediately added, ‘Tell anybody, and I’ll murder you and go back in time so that you won’t ever know I even did it.’ 

She’d frowned at him, and he sighed loudly, telling her that she was recording all wrong. At one point, she was pretty sure it had just become Five grumbling and doing it for her, which she didn’t complain about, fascinated by the fact that, even if he didn’t look as old as the pictures of himself in the Commission, he still very much looked like a grumpy old man. 

Allison, deciding to keep going with the semi-homemade theme, asked Vanya to show her how to knit. Not quite able to make a sweater, she made what ended up looking like a very  _ unique  _ scarf. 

By the time she was driving away with Luther, waving to her family behind her (Five and Vanya were the only ones staying at the mansion, actually, and she was pretty certain the reason why), she’d wrapped all of the presents and set them in the trunk. He’d brought a few presents as well that he set beside hers, and she wondered if she'd gotten the right gifts for him. If he would like them.

They reached Vermont late into the night because they’d made a lot of stops along the way. Ever since they’d been together, they’d loved exploring obscure monuments, quirkily-themed gas stations, and unknown museums for odd things like discontinued toys or SPAM. The opportunity to do something as simple as a  _ road trip  _ was novel to them both, and they had a shelf covered in knick knacks they didn’t need from trips that were wonderfully  _ ordinary.  _

Luther gave her a few scrapbooks filled with pictures of them on their vacations, sheepishly explaining he’d gotten the idea because they were taking another one. He’d also given her a small bracelet, and he told her all about the trouble he’d had, going to  _ jewelry making classes  _ with how indelicate his fingers were and with the instructor repeatedly cooing at a husband willing to do so. Even though he made it sound like it turned out awfully, she gaped, with tears pricking her vision, the delicately engraved sentence from one of the vows he’d given her. He’d added hearts that he explained were supposed to reflect the locket and a sun and crescent moon on either side of the words. 

“Oh my god, Luther.” She hugged him tightly. “Thank you so much. I love all of this. I feel like what I got you pales in comparison now.”

However, when he opened the presents his eyes lit up, and he kissed her softly. They were both crying then.

When they started playing the mixtape, leaning against one another, Luther pulled her against his arms. Moments later, they started kissing, pulling articles of clothing off quickly, and choosing to ignore Five’s voice on the tape ranting about how Allison would never learn anything from him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Sorry I was a little late on this!


End file.
